GEF to set up ₹500 cr edible oil manufacturing facility in Telangana

Gemini Edibles & Fats India Ltd (GEF India) is planning to augment its production capacities by setting up an integrated processing facility.

The ₹500-crore facility will come up in Telangana in the next 18-24 months. “It is going to be an integrated processing facility, unlike the ones we have near the ports in Andhra Pradesh where we are processing crude oil that we import,” Pradeep Chowdhry, Managing Director of Gemini Edibles and Fats India Ltd, has said.

“Though we are the leaders in the State, we don’t have a facility in Telangana. Now that the State is promoting oil palm cultivation in a big way, we see a good scope for setting up a manufacturing facility. We are looking for 40-50 acres of land for setting up the facility,” he said. The State would have 7-8 lakh hectares of oil palm in the next few years.

GEF India has two plants at Kakinada and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh with a combined capacity of 2,615 tonnes a day.

Price outlook

He said the prices of edible oils, which went up sharply post pandemic, were coming down. “Sunflower prices went up to a high of $2,400 a tonne, while soya touched $2,000 and palm oil $1,900, a few months ago. But the situation has improved and the prices have come down,” he said.

While sunflower prices have come down to $1,800, soya prices are down to $1,500 and palm oil to $1,300,” he said.

He said the ideal prices, which will be win-win for consumers and farmers, would be $1,000 for palm oil and $1,100-1,200 for sunflower and soya.

Meanwhile, the company’s flagship brand Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil has been adjudged No.1 brand (Nielsen IQ data on Refined Oil Cons Pack) by volume sales in the sunflower oil segment in the country.

The company, which sells its products in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Odisha, is now looking to expand to States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

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